They stumbled wildly up the great stairs beyond the door. Aragorn leading, Boromir at the rear. At the top was a wide echoing passage. Along this they fled.... Doom, doom, doom the drum-beats rolled behind, mournful now and slow; doom!

They ran on.... They passed into a hall.... They fled across it. Through its huge broken doors they passed, and suddenly before them the Great Gates opened, an arch of blazing light.

There was a guard of orcs crouching... behind the great door posts..., but the gates were shattered.... Aragorn smote to the ground the captain that stood in his path, and the rest fled in terror.... The Company swept past them.... Out of the Gates they ran and sprang down the huge and age-worn steps....

Thus, at last, they came beyond hope under the sky and felt the wind on their faces.

They did not halt until they were out of bowshot from the walls. Dimrill Dale lay about them.... It was but one hour after noon....

Grief at last wholly overcame them, and they wept long....

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

'Alas! I fear we cannot stay here longer,' said Aragorn. He looked towards the mountains and held up his sword. 'Farewell, Gandalf!' he cried. 'Did I not say to you: if you pass the doors of Moria, beware? Alas that I spoke true! What hope have we without you?'

He turned to the Company. 'We must do without hope,' he said.... 'Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road....'

They rose and looked about them....

Less than a mile away, and a little below them, for they still stood high up on the west side of the dale, there lay a mere....

'There lies the Mirrormere, deep Kheled-zâram!' said Gimli sadly. 'I remember that he said: "May you have joy of the sight! But we cannot linger there." Now long shall I journey ere I have joy again. It is I that must hasten away, and he that must remain.'

The Company now went down the road from the Gates. It was rough and broken.... An eastward bend led them hard by the sward of Mirrormere, and there not far from the roadside stood a single column broken at the top.

'That is Durin's Stone!' cried Gimli. 'I cannot pass without turning aside for a moment to look at the wonder of the dale!'

'Be swift then!' said Aragorn, looking back towards the Gates. 'The Sun sinks early. The Orcs will not, maybe, come out till after dusk, but we must be far away before nightfall. The Moon is almost spent, and it will be dark tonight.'

'Come with me, Frodo!' cried the dwarf.... 'I would not have you go without seeing Kheled-zâram.' He ran down the long green slope....

Beside the standing stone Gimli halted.... 'This pillar marks the spot where Durin first looked in the Mirrormere,' said the dwarf. 'Let us look ourselves once, ere we go!'

They stooped over the dark water.... [Slowly] they saw the forms of the encircling mountains mirrored in a profound blue, and the peaks were like plumes of white flame...; beyond there was a space of sky. There like jewels sunk in the deep shone glinting stars, though sunlight was in the sky above....

The road now turned south and went quickly downwards, running out from between the arms of the dale. Some way below the mere they came on a deep well of water, clear as crystal, from which a freshet... ran....

'Here is the spring from which the Silverlode rises,' said Gimli. 'Do not drink of it! It is icy cold.'

'Soon it becomes a swift river, and it gathers water from many other mountain-streams,' said Aragorn. 'Our road leads beside it for many miles. For I shall take you by the road that Gandalf chose, and first I hope to come to the woods where the Silverlode flows into the Great River — out yonder.'.... [They] could see the stream... running... away into the lower lands, until it was lost in a golden haze.

'There lie the woods of Lothlórien!' said Legolas.... 'My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!'

'My heart will be glad, even in the winter,' said Aragorn. 'But it lies many miles away. Let us hasten!'